H is for: Have Fish, Will Eat!
With only a few bruises and some mediocre selfies, it was time to see if Mom and Dad actually made it down to Ammoudi Bay by way of taxi like we’d planned. I've come to learn that the poopout factor is a real thing when you're in your 80's. The bay area is tiny, and had we had more time, we’d have gone a bit further down the trail and around the corner (about 5 minutes walk for those who may find yourselves in Santorini someday) and taken a peek at the swimming hole that’s so popular. Alas, we didn’t have all day and had a pre-arranged fishing expedition planned. Well, I mean, fishing in the sense of eating some. All of the 5 or so restaurants on the shores of Ammoudi Bay are fish tavernas serving whatever was caught fresh that day and we wanted some!! Each one has an eye-catching display to entice its customers and these are perhaps some of the most photographed in all of Santorini.
Another text or two was sufficient to gather us back together and after perusing the several eateries' menus we settled on this one:
The link to their website is pretty fun. It has a drone flight on their homepage so you can see the little area we ate in.
http://www.ammoudisantorini.com/
Their menu is fairly extensive with several options for each course: http://www.ammoudisantorini.com/files/Ammoudi-menu-english.pdf Like all restaurants in the Mediterranean, save a very few, Ammoudi Bay Fish Taverna is closed November-March. As an FYI, while you’ll enjoy hardly any tourists to fight for space over and cooler temps, you’ll also struggle to find stuff open. Towards the end of this trip, Anara and I would run into that issue in Tuscany. We asked our taxi driver what the locals do during the winter, and he told us they travel, workout, spend time with family, work on their hobbies or work the family farm. Most go home as a high percentage are seasonal workers. It’s a completely different life rhythm than we have for sure.
(This resident enjoys a laid back lifestyle all of the time.)
I’m not altogether sure Mikki was happy with either the restaurant choice or where we ended up sitting. Perhaps she was in a mood, eh? (See what I did there?) At first, we were right along the rail overlooking the water, but it was pretty breezy and a bit uncomfortable, so we moved a little more to the interior. In my opinion the view was just as spectacular, so whatever. We could still see the fishing and day cruise boats coming and going on the gentle waves of that gorgeous azure sea. It didn’t take long to understand why people keep coming back here.
Right away we were given some fresh bread with a dish olive oil and tapenade. I could eat my weight in this stuff! Mikki ordered a cocktail and the rest of us got the hoity-toity gas water.
For our appetizers we shared an “Ammoudi Salad” which was fresh and tasty. Then again, a salad’s a salad and sometimes we eat them because we need to. Or face the consequences. My folks don’t love calamari, but we ordered one anyway. Under one condition: If my mom could have the “parts without tentacles”. Fine, whatever. It all tastes the same.
While we munched on these goodies, the cooks were busy cooking up our whole catch of the day. If you’ve never had fresh fish cooked in charcoal, you've missed out on one of life's most wonderful things ever. We think it was Sea Bream. I’m not 100% sure; if it wasn’t that, it was Branzino. Regardless, it was heavenly. Absolute perfection in a fish dish. We couldn’t quite finish it all but came awfully close.
(This platter was about 20"x20")
We’d now scored 2 perfect meals in a row. Would our dining luck continue? With stuffed bellies, it was time to work our way off of Santorini and back to the ship. My folks had gotten the number of their taxi driver that had taken them down to Ammoudi and they tried to give him a call. It ended up being a complete waste of time. Whereas he did tell us he’d be there in 10 minutes, that was a lie. We hiked up the short little hill to the point cars had to stop and waited. It was incredibly windy in this area and actually kind of cold. I was becoming cranky.
We waited and waited and waited. Dad called a few times with no answer. At that point, we gave up and started trying to hail another taxi who would take us up the hill. There aren't many who are willing to go down to Ammoudi due to the tight quarters and steep hill. In all, perhaps 30 minutes passed before we finally found someone who, for $50 would not only take us up the hill but all the way back to Fira where we could get a ride down on the cable car. Huzzah! It was all hunky dory! That is until we saw the line for the cable car. Yeah, no one was going to go anywhere in a hurry. At all. It stretched all the way through the little souvenir shop district and down into the residential neighborhood beyond. Great. Mom was already having a really hard time with walking, let alone standing. The only ray of hope was that it was moving and folks in line were estimating it was about a 45-minute wait. So not quite as shocking as it looked at first. The best part of the wait? We had top notch entertainment! Every hundred yards or so there was a kid eager to earn a bit of quid by playing their accordion. I searched in vain to find the one song they knew to show you that we heard many… many times. And just when we thought we couldn’t stand it one more time, we had gotten almost to the point where we could buy our tickets when there was a little commotion. Someone was escorting an elderly gentleman and asked us to step aside; the poor guy had taken a little tumble and was bleeding from his forehead and arm. This made me so sad, and I hoped that it wouldn’t wreck his vacation too terribly much. Another $3 pp paid and away we finally went… down, down, down… I took another video to share the journey with you! Aren’t you excited?! Wheeeeee!!
We easily made our way to the security check at the docks for the tenders where the smiling staff welcomed us back with cool, scented washcloths and iced, infused water. Mom was too busy in a panic over finding her SeaPass to bother with either. Mikki and I found our way onto the return tender telling Mom and Dad we’d see them later on in the room. The evening skies did not disappoint as the two of us spent an hour or so soaking in the lukewarm tub.
Dinner wouldn’t be nearly as good as lunch had been. Sadly, the buffet food just wasn’t very good. It appears I ended up with some Indian food. Clearly, I wasn’t very hungry after the veritable feast we’d had just a few hours prior. I did enjoy a cocktail though in the lounge while listening to that wonderful string duet we enjoyed so many times. And that wraps up our day in Santorini. It was lovely. It didn't go quite as I'd originally planned but that's ok. Mikki and I had thought that we wanted to hike along the rim trail back to Fira (about a 3-4 hour walk) after lunch, but by the time we were done, we felt like we'd seen enough. I think if I were to ever go back and had more time with an overnight there, I'd love to hike the rim trail, but it just wasn't in the cards this time. Overall, what did I think of the most popular and visited island in Greece? It was ok. It was definitely packed solid with people making it less attractive to me personally. Yes, the views are stunning; yes, there are some very nice high-end restaurants and more shopping than you could ever imagine, but that's just not my thing. There are several other sights to visit other than Oia including a winery, some ruins, and more remote swimming options, but the stop was short so we ended up doing what most folks do. Would I go back? Yes, I would, but may very well choose other options for sight-seeing which would require an overnight stay. And that, my friends, wraps up this chapter. The next day would find us in Ephesus, Turkey, so stay tuned for a write up of our favorite day of sight-seeing on the cruise portion.... Ancient ruins, a Biblical feast, a rug factory and more!! Meantime, Merry Christmas Friends. I'm moving to my Winter Quarters in Tucson on Wednesday with a stop in Ft. Worth to see my eldest daughter and her family so will be absent for a short spell. Keep the comments and check-ins coming though. It's always great to hear from you!!